Pharmacy Daily | Pay rates “embarrassing”

PHARMACISTS' salaries are embarrassingly low, according to one pharmacy owner who responded to the recent Pharmacy Daily Salary Survey (PD 05 Apr).

The survey found the average community pharmacist earns $80,550 for their work in the retail pharmacy setting, with just under half of respondents reporting they worked over 40 hours a week.

Pharmacy owners reported the highest average incomes ($168,000), followed by managers ($95,500) and non-management level pharmacists ($75,300).

Commenting on the survey, one owner described pharmacists as "the hardest working, but lowest paid health workers in Australia".

"I am embarrassed, how little financial recognition I can afford to pay my wonderful staff, but as an industry competing with big-box discounters, who have trained Australians to expect a discounted price, and a Federal Government always reducing our remuneration, we are in a position of compromise," the owner said.

"I am disappointed with the manner remuneration has evolved and unless someone is passionate about pharmacy, [I] would not recommend it as a career, as I fear new pharmacists will feel unappreciated and undervalued."

Survey data showed 46% of pharmacists earn between $50,000 and $90,000 a year, with 5% taking home more then $130,000.

The survey found no statistically significant difference in pharmacist pay between banner groups, while the pharmacy school a pharmacist graduated from did not appear to influence their earning potential.

A number of respondents said wage stagnation in the sector had been driven by the rise of discount pharmacy groups and called for greater regulation.

"I feel Chemist Warehouse are bastardising the industry and the Pharmacy Guild of Australia and Government should at least make them charge a professional service fee for prescriptions," one pharmacist commented.

Analysis of the survey compared to data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics put average employee pharmacist earnings above nurses ($71,900), and almost on par with optometrists.

However, pharmacists's income trailed the earnings of dentists, GPs, anaesthetists and psychiatrists.